I think when you first wake your Touch up, you have to wait at least say 1 minute for it to get its act together before you check the battery level. I suppose you have been doing that, but if not, it might account for the wildly swinging amounts, especially going up.

Also, I think that when you have a Touch with this problem, it really is charging correctly, and probably is not draining as fast as it thinks it is. I think that the problem is just in what it THINKS its charge level is.

In other words, if you can stop it from thinking its charge is dropping quickly, it will work fine. The topping off technique seems to do this.

The problem, of course, is that you are at the mercy of what it thinks - i.e. even if it is really at 90% charge but thinks it's at 15%, you'll have to recharge it.

So I guess what I'm saying is that if you can establish a method for stopping it from thinking it is draining (rebooting, topping it off with the charger, topping it off with the computer, whatever works), you can stop obsessively checking the battery level. It doesn't matter if it sometimes goes up from 94 to 95. What matters is that it doesn't drain.

I mean, for example, that I have never topped it off and had it behave itself for say a week and then suddenly start draining quickly again. It seems to be something that only happens after the initial recharge with the charger.

I kind of think that this is because the charger charges it too quickly. I haven't tried it, but I think that when it reaches below say 30%, if you charged it the entire way by tethering it to the computer, it would work fine and would never rapidly drain.

Yes, it sounds like it might help. As I mentioned, sometimes it stays at 100% for up to 4 days after a top-off. Of course, it depends on the individual Touch.

Another thing - I think that many people that have Touches with this problem don't know it till after the 14-day return period is over. This is what happened to me. And the reason is simple. When you first get your Nook home, the first thing they tell you to do is charge it. So you do that. But when you think about it, what you are doing at that point is really topping it off, because a new device from the store usually has say an 80% charge. So you are just topping it up to 100%. So then you think it is great and you use it for over a month. Then you recharge it, essentially for the very first time, and find out you have this draining problem and it's too late to return it.

Well back from my trip and I still just don't know. The battery level was reading low 80's, I went to read one morning when my youngest son woke me up at about 6:30am. I got about a sentence in after waking it and it told me it needed charging. I plugged it in for about 20 minutes and it still claimed it still wouldn't turn on. I pulled the power cable and it booted then, claiming 0% charge. I plugged it back in and a couple of minutes later still 0%. 10 minutes after replugging it, it was up to 38% and told me 100% charge about 15 minutes after that (about 45 minutes or so total charge time). The charge light was still on despite 100% charge (it was for about 3-4 minutes after claiming 100% charge).

I immediately rebooted it after unplugging it when the charge light was green and the settings display claimed 100% both.

Its been slowly dropping since then (Sunday morning). However, I have also been reading probably an average of 90 minutes a day since then. It was around 95% as of Thursday morning. I was 88% when I got back from the trip with no reading, but there appears to be an explination.

I was in Florida with nice low 70's temperatures and at home it is around 67F on my thermostat. That combined with when I pulled it out of the outer pocket of my backpack, it was sitting on the slide to wake screen, that explains that drop to me. I am hoping that only happened as of when I pulled it out I "crushed" the cover enough to hit the n/power button to cause it to wake. Worse case it was like that for about 24hrs since I loaded it in to my car for the drive.

So that is going to throw off my battery life test this time around (again), but it seems more promising, especially since I rebooted immediately following a full charge instead of several hours afterward the pervious time.

Can I get some of your recommendations? I had the nook for maybe a week and on first charge, it completely drained to 0% within that week (just maybe 1-2 hour reading a night if that much). I recharged to 100% last night (the 2nd charge) then read just 30 minutes. This morning, it is at 94% life already, wi-fi off. I have one more week until the 14 days are up. Should I do an exchange now or is this normal?

When you first get your Nook home, the first thing they tell you to do is charge it. So you do that. But when you think about it, what you are doing at that point is really topping it off, because a new device from the store usually has say an 80% charge.

Uh-oh, was this supposed to be the case? When I got my nook new, it was at "battery life too low to power on", so I had to do a full charge. My first 100% charge completely discharged within a week.

I was in the same position. My battery life seems to maybe have improved now. If you read through the thread you can see the "host" of issues I have had with it. Charging up and then promptly rebooting as soon as I unplug it seems to have now fixed the battery life issue. I can't swear to that, but I think it has. I am around 77% battery life after a week of heavy use since I charged it last Monday. I've been reading probably on average 2 hours a day and also part of that time it was "stuck" on the drag to unlock wake "screen" since the n/power button got pushed when in my backpack coming back from a trip. That could have happened right when I packed it/loaded in my car 24hrs before I discovered it, or it could have happened as I was taking it out of my bag, not sure. At any rate, it was about 6-7% down from when I had loaded in the bag.

My first week of ownership I got 1 week of charge out of it (also was "needing charge" upon arrival). My 2nd week I got 3 days of heavy use out of it. The next charge I got about 5 days of light use out of it before it "went dead" from an 85% charge. Now I am on the most recent charge, and did the actual reboot after a full charge (previously I only rebooted several hours after the full charge, if that makes a difference) and going strong supposedly.

I did say battery was too low and needed to charge yesterday morning. However, my cat also knocked my nook ST 3ft off my night stand on to the hardwood floor immediately preceeding this message and it booted up immediately when I hit the power button when I took it down to breakfast with my younger son giving me an 81% power level reading. So I'll chalk that one up to the nook not liking shocks. Previous "battery too low, charge for 15 minute" messages really meant that, it would refuse to boot on until I plugged it in for awhile first.

The 14 days is for refunds, but there is a 1 year warranty if that helps. I've decided that even if mine has serious battery issues, I am just going to try an exchage at some point once I give this thing another few weeks for use/recharges. Hopefully, if this thing stays true to the battery meter this time (I did the once, but discharging very, very quickly that time) it should last me roughly a month of pretty decent use (I think it is rated at 2 months of like 30 minutes of reading a day I think, or maybe it is 60 minutes, 2hrs a day for 1 month seems pretty good to me).

Thanks azazel for your input. I am just a bit worried about my 1 year warranty because I purchased my nook from Staples, not Barnes & Nobles, so Staples might be less willing to exchange the device for me just for battery issues when the device works.

Sorry I didn't notice that this thread had some recent entries. Betty, if I were you I'd return my new Nook to B&N right away and get a new one, before your 14 days is up.

It is hard to tell why your new Nook right from the store had almost no charge. I've had 4 - a Classic, a Color, and the 2 Touches (the 2nd replacing the first), and in each case they were pretty highly charged when I first got them. Regardless, your Nook seems to be exhibiting the same symptoms I've been reporting (or even worse problems like azazel is having).

In a way, you're lucky the problems are showing up so early, when you can do something about it (i.e. exchange it for a new one). If you wait, yes, your warrantee will cover you, but you'll then have to MAIL the damn Nook back to B&N (they won't take it at the store - I've been all thru this myself), and you'll get a refurbished Nook, not a new one.

I'm sure they'll do the exchange at the store, as long as it is within the 14 day period.

Yes, it could very well be a firmware problem. As I mentioned, I think the battery really isn't draining, the Nook just thinks it is. THe problem is that if you have one that is misbehaving, you are at its mercy - if it thinks it needs to be charged, it needs to be charged.

Everytime they have an upgrade, it seems to always include an item that says "better battery life." I keep hoping these updates will fix the way my Touch is misbehaving. So far I've been thru 2 updates and neither has fixed the problem.

The battey life is going down with the new 1.1.0 update, on the main nook page on the B&N website it says the battery last upto 2 month`s at 1hr a day , but if you go to the update changes for 1.1.0 , it says better battery life, but then says 2 months at 1/2 a hour a day????

Yes, it could very well be a firmware problem. As I mentioned, I think the battery really isn't draining, the Nook just thinks it is. THe problem is that if you have one that is misbehaving, you are at its mercy - if it thinks it needs to be charged, it needs to be charged.

Everytime they have an upgrade, it seems to always include an item that says "better battery life." I keep hoping these updates will fix the way my Touch is misbehaving. So far I've been thru 2 updates and neither has fixed the problem.

The software needs to "learn" your battery. That is why you need to charge a few times before the software battery level is reliable.

Another problem can be caused by the cover. The Nook Touch screen is not really a touch screen. There is a grid of infrared beams above the screen. Those beams detect motion. This means that anything that is near the screen will trigger the screen. Some people have reported that their cover came to close to the screen, which triggers the screen and prevents the Nook from going to sleep. The same can happen if you put it in a bag or something without a cover without putting it to sleep first.

When the Nook Touch was just released there were some Nooks with bad batteries that drained very fast. If you bought your Nook Touch when it was just released, it could be that you have a bad battery and need to replace your Nook Touch under the guarantee.

The battey life is going down with the new 1.1.0 update, on the main nook page on the B&N website it says the battery last upto 2 month`s at 1hr a day , but if you go to the update changes for 1.1.0 , it says better battery life, but then says 2 months at 1/2 a hour a day????